Mover Mike

(Marvel) Kunkle, a self-described "cradle Catholic," has attended St. Peter Catholic Church in west Eugene (Oregon) for 40 years. Because she's among the 390,000 Catholics who live in Western Oregon, she's also a defendant in the Archdiocese of Portland's bankruptcy case.

In a legal maneuver, the archdiocese in July listed all 390,000 parishioners as class-action defendants in the bankruptcy filing, made last year as the church struggled to respond to more than 200 claims of sexual abuse by priests.

...Judge Elizabeth Perris (will decide) whether parish property belongs to individual parishes or to the Archdiocese of Portland, which encompasses 124 parishes, three high schools and about 400,000 parishioners. The ruling could determine whether the parishes' estimated $500 million in real estate, cash and investments is available to pay millions of dollars in child sexual-abuse claims.

Portland Archbishop John G. Vlazny, for example, made a sacred vow to uphold canon law, which prohibits him from seizing assets that church law says belong to the parishes. If Perris rules that the parish assets belong to the archdiocese, the church's lawyers say, Vlazny would be forced to look at ignoring canon law in violation of his vow.

Under Roman Catholic canon law, the archdiocese and individual parishes are all considered public juridic persons. Such "persons" are independent entities, like corporations, and they each hold their own property. The head of a parish, however, is a priest who is appointed by and directly responsible to the archbishop, not parishioners.

Nearly all parishes' real estate deeds are in the name of the archdiocese, which argues that it is holding the property in trust for the parishes.